We’ve now come to the final day of Dragon Week today with this week’s Legendary Pokemon of the Week post. And as you might guess, the Pokemon covered in this week’s post is a dragon. Presenting the once secret third member and master of the Hoenn Region’s Weather Trio, Rayquaza.
I first learned of Rayquaza from the strategy guide of this one dude I knew, I think I’ve mentioned him before. Anyway, at the time I wasn’t able to learn much, only that there was an old tower in the game with a green dragon living at the top. And of course I had deduced that the dragon was Legendary. So that afternoon in my Sapphire version I went to go find the tower, and when I had found it and finally managed to get to the top, I found myself doing battle with a level seventy Legendary Dragon Pokemon. A while after I had managed to capture Rayquaza (which was not easy) I noticed a few similarities between Rayquaza and Kyorge and Groudon.
They all had the same sort of eyes and a similar line pattern running over their bodies. Plus Rayquaza had an ability that involved the weather, specifically the ability to negate weather effects. It then occurred to me that Rayquaza was connected to Kyogre and Groudon, and that connection was confirmed in Emerald. In Emerald, it was revealed that Rayquaza has the power to stop Kyogre and Groudon should they start fighting each other and threaten to destroy the world. When not stopping Kyorge and Groudon, Rayquaza is either flying around the world or resting atop the very tower I’ve mentioned before, which I’m about to get into.
Hangout: In Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald, Rayquaza can be found atop the ancient Sky Pillar. I hate the Sky Pillar. I’d probably like it though if it were for those floors where you had to ride the Mach Bike over really quickly, or else fall back down to the previous floor. Having to catch Rayquaza is hard enough without having to deal with that. Still, with all the high-level Pokemon living in the tower, the Sky Pillar is a good place to train after Rayquaza has been captured. Rayquaza can also be captured at the Embedded Tower in HeartGold and SoulSilver. But to get him to come there you first need to have the Kyorge from HeartGold and the Groudon from SoulSilver in your game and get the Jade Orb from Professor Oak.
Signature Ability: Like Kyogre and Groudon, Rayquaza has a signature ability that can control the weather. And for Rayquaza, that ability is in the form of Air Lock. Air Lock negates the effect of weather condition on the battlefield. The effects are still there of course, but the don’t do anything for attacks. For example, if the effect of Sunny Day or Drought was active while Air Lock was in play, Solar Beam would still take two turns to activate and Fire-type moves wouldn’t get their boost. Yet you’d still see sunlight shining down onto the field.
Unlikely Nature: So the very first time I attempted to catch Rayquaza it took several resets. Plus each time my whole team was practically wiped out. I was glad that I at least had my Metagross with me. When I finally caught Rayquaza though, I saw that its nature was Docile. And I was like, “yeah right!” That dragon took out all most my whole platoon, and it’s supposed to be Docile? Of course I guess in this case Docile meant that while Rayquaza was ferocious in battle, it usually preferred to spend its time sleeping.
That concludes this week’s post, as well as Dragon Week. For next week, in preparation for the U.S. premier of the next Pokemon movie, I’ll be covering a band of Legendary Pokemon from the Unova Region. So until next week, stay tuned.
